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Rain barrel stand

In this new enviromental age I decided it was time to get some rain barrels. Luckily enough they had a special deal through the Municipality and picked up two rain barrel kits recently for good price. Decided to weld up a stand affair for them to sit on attached to the side of my deck. After a couple hours in the garage and some spray bombing the item was done. Here are some pictures of the frame and the barrels sitting on their prior to full hookup.

Good job Harold!. I'm on the same track and brought a few barrels home from the last job. The steel barrels just carried a product which was contained in plastic, so I have no worries about contamination. I was wondering if the second barrel is for overflow from the first. My wife pointed that out to me when I was brainstorming about gathering rain water and saving on the summer water bills. Especially when the barrels are typically close to the house and the rain gutter, any overflow could puddle close to the foundation. We have an older house and I'm pretty sure there's no weeping tile. But what I'll probably do is by using my piping skills,( which are few) I'll use up some 2"galvanized pipe I picked up from a jobsite (I hate waste) and run an overflow line into 2 more barrels. It'll be a weekend project my welder apprentice son and I can slap together. And I'll post pics if it doesn't look to bad.

Good job Harold!. I'm on the same track and brought a few barrels home from the last job. The steel barrels just carried a product which was contained in plastic, so I have no worries about contamination. I was wondering if the second barrel is for overflow from the first. My wife pointed that out to me when I was brainstorming about gathering rain water and saving on the summer water bills. Especially when the barrels are typically close to the house and the rain gutter, any overflow could puddle close to the foundation. We have an older house and I'm pretty sure there's no weeping tile. But what I'll probably do is by using my piping skills,( which are few) I'll use up some 2"galvanized pipe I picked up from a jobsite (I hate waste) and run an overflow line into 2 more barrels. It'll be a weekend project my welder apprentice son and I can slap together. And I'll post pics if it doesn't look to bad.

Look forward to seeing it.

Good job Harold, I just picked up one of those barrels myself.
Once I get the siding, soffit, fascia.... dealt with this summer I plan to make a stand for the water barrels as well.

Now that's got me thinking, is there a better way to place these barrels. Vertical or horizontal? The plastic barrels that you buy at the store are typically placed vertical but with the steel barrels that I have,I was thinking of placing them horizontal. Any opinions??

barrel placement

If you are using a steel or plastic barrel that was not set up for rain barrel then the tap and fill holes are on the top and you could place a tap in the smaller hole and have the the barrels horizontal. Then you could also connect two barrels with the upper hole so that when one is full the other starts to fill up and then you might end up with two barrels of water.
For my setup both barrels have taps and they are connected so that when the first one is full the overflow goes into the second barrel. I guess you can add more barrels depending on the volume of water off the roof. I plan to just let the over flow from the second barrel go back into my drain system or onto the grass which slopes away from the house.
Good luck on your projects